The Victoria and Albert Museum in London (V&A) will open a show next year looking at the legacy of Marie Antoinette, the notorious Queen of France who died at the guillotine in 1793, aged 37.
The new exhibition, opening on 20 September 2025, will explore “the origins and countless revivals of the style shaped by the most fashionable queen in history”, says a statement. It will also demonstrate the late monarch’s “lasting influence on over 250 years of design, fashion, film and decorative arts”. Portraits of Marie Antoinette in the V&A collection include a 1777 print by Jean-François Janinet (1752-1814) and a 1773 painting by François Hubert Drouais (1727-75).
Austrian-born Marie Antoinette married the future French king Louis XVI when she was 15. According to historians at the Palace of Versailles, where she held court, “she had a very refined taste and as a result was patron for many artists, such as the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, whose successful career as a portraitist owed much to the Queen’s support, and who produced around 30 portraits of her.” Known for her lavish spending, her extravagance and excess helped spark the French Revolution in 1789.
From high-end jewels to ancient Egypt
Another crowd-pleasing show due to open at the South Kensington museum next year focuses on the history and designs of the fabled French jewellery house and luxury brand Cartier (12 April 2025-16 November). Curators will explore, through 350 items, how the three grandsons of the company founder, Louis-François, created the “first globally recognised jewellery house”, establishing branches in Paris, London and New York. In 1902 for instance, Cartier opened its first boutique in London, overseen by Pierre Cartier, who cultivated a relationship with the UK royal court.
The exhibition will include jewels, watches and clocks from the V&A and Cartier Collection as well as previously unseen drawings. The Royal Collection Trust, UK and international museums, and private collections are also due to lend works. Significant Cartier works in the V&A collection include the Manchester Tiara, which was made by Cartier, Paris, in 1903 to the order of Consuelo, Dowager Duchess of Manchester.
“Rebirth” garments by Sandra Oviedo (a.k.a.) Colectivo Multipolar will be on show at the forthcoming Design and Disability exhibition
Meanwhile, Design and Disability (7 June-15 February 2026) looks at how disabled people and their collaborators have shaped design, art, architecture, fashion, and photography since the 1940s. “Both a celebration and a call to action, the exhibition will show where and how disabled, Deaf, and neurodiverse people and communities have always been important and radical contributors to design history and contemporary culture,” says the museum statement.
Set of nine photographic prints on aluminium by Chant Avedissian (1990)
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
The Young V&A, the museum aimed at children which won the UK’s Art Fund Museum of the Year prize in July, will host Making Egypt (15 February-2 November 2025), an exploration of ancient Egypt’s myths, gods and landscape for younger audiences. V&A Dundee, the museum’s Scottish outpost, will present A Fragile Correspondence (from 22 November), a survey of landscapes in the Highlands, islands and lowlands.